Giants Barry Bonds sits in the dugout during the Giants team workout October 18, 2002. The San Francisco Giants vs. the Anaheim Angels in the World Series with games one and two being played in Anaheim. Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle
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Giants Barry Bonds sits in the dugout during the Giants team workout October 18, 2002. The San Francisco Giants vs. the Anaheim Angels in the World Series with games one and two being played in Anaheim. Mike ... more

Giants star Barry Bonds is among 40 "elite" athletes who have been subpoenaed to testify as witnesses before a federal grand jury investigating a Burlingame nutritional supplement laboratory, according to the man who runs the company.

Victor Conte, whose Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) was named Wednesday in connection with what Olympic drug-testing officials called an international sports drug scandal, wrote in e-mails to The Chronicle Friday that Bonds was on a list of professional and Olympic athletes summoned to testify in the federal investigation.

A source familiar with the subpoenas confirmed that the home-run king had been summoned to testify before the grand jury in San Francisco. The source asked not to be quoted by name.

Another source who is knowledgeable about aspects of the case told The Chronicle that the grand jury was investigating Conte and his firm for suspected tax violations. Conte markets nutritional supplements and sophisticated blood-testing services to star athletes.

Athletes are not the focus of the probe, said this source, who also requested anonymity, but the grand jury wants to question them about payments to Conte to see whether they are reflected in tax returns.

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Bonds, a client of Conte's since the winter of 2000, has touted the firm's nutritional supplements in interviews and on Conte's company Web site. Conte disclosed the subpoena to Bonds in response to a query from The Chronicle.

"I do know that Barry has received a subpoena," he wrote.

"There are at least seven NFL players that I know of, plus at least four professional baseball players that have received a subpoena. Most of the other athletes are from track and field."

In another e-mail, Conte wrote: "My understanding is that 40 elite Olympic and professional athletes have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury."

Conte's firm has been under federal scrutiny for months.

In March, the U.S. Attorney's Office sued BALCO, charging it with Medicare fraud in connection with billings for blood tests.

In September, Internal Revenue Service agents, accompanied by representatives of the Food and Drug Administration, the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency raided its offices. Later,

another search was conducted at the Burlingame home of Greg Anderson, one of Bonds' personal trainers.

The agencies haven't commented on the reason for the raid or the grand jury probe.

Conte and BALCO were enmeshed in more controversy earlier this week when the nonprofit agency that oversees drug testing for U.S. Olympic teams publicly charged that Conte had distributed a so-called "designer steroid" created to allow athletes to beat drug tests.

Terry Madden, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, contended that BALCO was at the center of a burgeoning scandal, saying, "I know of no other bust that involved anabolic steroids with this number" of athletes involved.

Conte contended in e-mails that he himself has not been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, and he said he has not been notified that he is a target of the federal probe. He hasn't said why he thinks he is under investigation, and he didn't name other athletes who have been subpoenaed.

Union City sprinter Kelli White, another client of Conte, told The Chronicle on Thursday that she also had been subpoenaed to testify in the case.

She said she had been cooperating with authorities but declined to discuss details.

Conte is a former bass guitarist for the '70s rock group Tower of Power who for more than a decade has marketed nutritional products targeted to athletes. According to company Web sites, the client lists of BALCO and its supplement wing Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC) include several Olympic athletes past and present, tennis stars, bodybuilders and professional football players.

The biggest star is Bonds. His picture adorns the company Website.

The Website also links to an article in last June's Muscle & Fitness magazine in which Bonds praises the company's services. The story says he "spouts like an evangelist at a revival meeting" about the value of having one's blood analyzed by BALCO for mineral and trace element deficiencies and then taking the firm's supplements to counter those shortages.

The anti-doping agency began investigating BALCO in June, after an unnamed "high profile track and field coach" contacted the anti-doping agency, Madden said at a news conference Thursday.

Madden said the coach gave investigators a used syringe partially filled with what he called an "undetectable" steroid that had recently come into use to beat athletic drug tests.

According to Madden, the coach said the drug was being supplied to athletes by Conte.

Madden said investigators took the syringe to Don Catlin, a scientist at UCLA, who by "reverse engineering" was able to determine the chemical structure of the new drug.

Madden called the substance "tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a "designer steroid" that he said was similar to other banned steroids.

Madden said his agency had not attempted to contact Conte, but based on what the unnamed coach said he was "fairly certain that the substance came from Victor Conte."

He said that retesting of urine samples from the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Stanford University indicated "several" athletes had tested positive. He declined to name the athletes or say how many had tested positive.

In e-mails to The Chronicle, Conte denied wrongdoing and criticized the anti-doping agency for targeting him at the news conference. He said that the substance that the anti-doping agency traced to BALCO was not a steroid and was not illegal. He complained that it was wrong for the anti-doping agency to "make up things as they go along" and denounce him in public.

"My opinion is that this case is more about politics than science," Conte wrote.

"There is absolutely zero evidence that this substance has any anabolic effects. I can guarantee you that it is not a controlled substance or illegal."

Catlin, in a phone interview, declined to discuss the issue, saying, "I have more important things to do" than respond to Conte's scientific claims.